Taken By The Dark
by xXBalorBabeXx
Summary: Slowly, the Amanda that Seth knew started to disappear... but he refused to acknowledge just how much of a part he had in it.
1. Surroundings Not Seen In Years

_**WWE Fastlane 2015, after six man tag…**_

" _Hey… that was great out there." Seth heard, seeing Amanda… she reached out to hug him but stopped when he lightly pressed his fingers into her collarbone. "Okay, that's not like you at all… what's going on here, Seth?" The 24 year old diva said, confused._

" _Nothing." Seth answered and turned to leave… he reached the edge of the hallway when he heard "You know, I'm getting really sick of this, Rollins!" and turned back, walking to Amanda._

" _What did you just say to me?!" Seth demanded._

" _Lately, you've treated me like we barely know each other… and you might not care but that hurts me, Seth. What did I do wrong, why don't you want anything to do with me anymore?" Amanda responded, Seth slamming the Money In The Bank briefcase down in rage and muttering a name under his breath… but Amanda heard it. "He is my friend but the Demon King and Demon Mistress thing, it's just a storyline, Seth. Just like The Shield splitting apart was for the cameras, it shouldn't affect us backstage." She said before he turned back to her._

" _Well it does! Before we know it, you'll be in the same bed and room, you'll be walking out into the arena hand in hand, leg up and lips together and it will be far from 'just an act'!" Seth said._

 _Amanda closed her hazel eyes for a split second and balled up her left hand before punching Seth right in the face, the noise attracting attention and Amanda seeing her old friend Joey Mercury._

" _Both of you calm down." Joey said, trying to keep the peace between the two._

" _Joey, stay outta this!" Seth snapped at him._

 _Amanda carefully pulled her hand away and walked off, Joey turning to Seth._

" _That was low, even for you! Mandy is a damn loyal friend, you idiot! And now you just want to kick her to the side because she's found the kind of happiness she hasn't had in years?!" Joey said._

 _Down the hallway, Amanda pulled her hood of her Balor Club hoodie over her head, wanting to just disappear entirely._

 _This was a lot different than NXT but_ _for Finn, it was a good way to learn, watching the main roster matches in person._

 _He stopped for a few seconds when he heard sniffling… the parts of chestnut hair sticking out from the hoodie the small woman was wearing was a dead giveaway to him. But in the few months he had known Amanda, he had never seen her this upset and walked over, crouching down and resting his hands on her knees._

 _Amanda looked up, brushing her tears away._

" _I feel so stupid… I thought that Seth and I had hit a rough patch in our friendship but that we'd fix it…" Amanda said, her voice croaky. "Why did I even bother trying? He just keeps pushing me away_ … _I called him out on it and things went to hell." She said, Finn pulling her into his arms… out of instinct, her arms_ _wrapped around him and her head rested on his left shoulder._

" _He's the one who's stupid, not you. He doesn't see what this does to you." Finn whispered before he picked Amanda up off the floor and took her to where her locker room was, putting_ _her on the couch._

 _He knew this was one of those times where she wished she could drink a glass of whiskey to soothe her nerves._

" _I was also gonna talk to him about tomorrow night's event…"_ _Amanda said, trailing off as she curled her legs up a bit so Finn could sit down. "It wouldn't be the first time in this business that it's happened, storyline relationships turning real off camera… he's acting like I betrayed him." She said quietly, Finn wrapping his arm around her shoulders after she sat up. "I'm just… I'm gonna go tell Hunter what happened and about everything…"_

 _Amanda started to stand up but stopped when Finn's left hand wrapped around her right wrist._

" _Whatever happens… between you and me or anyone else, it's none of Seth's business… there's nothing he can do but mouth off about it like a jealous little child." Finn said._

" _Who's gonna believe him anyway?... he needs to get his own life together." Amanda responded, starting to feel calmer._

" _Exactly, and we're far from the only ones who know that." Finn said, Amanda sitting down again. "Times like these… are when we find out who our true friends and companions are." He said as he wrapped his arms around her when both stretched out on the couch, her resting her head on his torso._

 _She knew what was going to be recommended..._

 **Present time,** _ **2/26/2015, Fayetteville, Georgia…**_

' _Been too damn long…'_ Amanda thought as she looked around in the guest room of the Benoit house… it was early in the morning still but she couldn't go back to sleep like she usually did after taking her meds, her mind in overdrive since the Fastlane pay per view.

After her fight with Seth, she took Hunter's advice to go clear her mind… so she and Finn ended up here. The house had been put in her name when she was 18 but she hadn't been here much except to clean it up and update the technology.

Amanda attempted to curl back up onto her left side and Finn's eyes opened, him knowing that this house was the one place that she never told Seth about or showed to him… but that it stirred up memories that Amanda felt at times were ruined by what happened.

But just as he was about to open his mouth, the two heard thunder and sat up. Amanda pulled the curtains back a bit after standing up, seeing the grey sky through the fog but it wasn't the threatening grey skies she normally saw when she heard thunder.

"Well that was strange…" Amanda muttered, Finn standing up and looking as well… and seeing someone outside in the driveway, Finn pulling Amanda away from the window and closing the curtains.

"We don't know who it is out there, it could be that Seth followed us." Finn said.

"He wouldn't… actually, I wouldn't put it past him to drive five hours from Atlanta to here because I wouldn't talk to him after that fight. But I think it's someone else out there." Amanda responded after opening the curtains again... before both saw lightning through the fog and jumped away from the window.

The lightning slowly faded and a man in his mid 20s became visible, noticing them.

"How the…" Finn said quietly, before stepping back a bit as the man started walking towards them… And then again further as he shone blue with crackles of lightning surrounding him, and disappeared in a bolt of electricity up into the telegraph wires.

"Sorry to scare you-" The two heard, jumping them and making them turn to see the man stood normally by the TV.

"You… were just outside…" Amanda managed to say as the man looked around and noticed a few _Tokyo Ghoul_ books nearby.

"I was… It did take me a while to adapt to how you lot use lightning and static, 'electricity'... But I think I've got the hold of it." The man responded.

Amanda jumped when her phone rang, seeing Dean's number.

"Fuck…" Amanda muttered, answering it. "How crazy is he going over there?" She asked.

"He was throwing things until Aestrid tied him up, where are you?" Dean replied.

"Uh… about 5 hours outside of Atlanta… by car, at least." Amanda answered.

"Of course you head to the one place he wouldn't look. I don't blame ya one bit, kiddo." Dean said.

"Friend of hers?" The man asked.

"Friend turned distant to the point where he's just about driving her mad when she confronted him about it. We've been hiding here for a few days." Finn answered.

"Good idea… Be it life, job or people, a few days away from it is always a good stress treatment." The man said.

"It is… life can just be crazy." Amanda responded after she and Dean hung up. "About the… lightning and thunder, how exactly did…" She started to ask.

"There are a lot of us… angels. I'm Ramiel." The man answered before he sat down to explain what he knew.


	2. Off Balance

_**2/23/15…**_

 _Ariel hid when she heard the yelling, peeking out from the crate into the garage of the hotel._

" _Forget it! You want to act like that, I'm not working Raw with you tomorrow, now shove off!" Amanda responded angrily, heading back towards the hotel to go find Finn but Seth grabbed her by her collarbone length hair and throwing her back first into the rental car._

 _Ariel screamed in rage, Seth seeing her as she emerged and Amanda managing to hide on the passenger side of the car._

" _Who the fuck are you?!" Seth yelled._

" _Someone who doesn't like you hurting someone half your size!" Ariel shouted._

 _With Seth distracted by Ariel, Amanda limped back into the hotel and fell to her knees at the same time that Finn had gotten off the elevator and ran to her, helping her up._

" _I heard a loud crash, what did he do?" Finn asked, his arms around Amanda._

" _Grabbed me by my hair and threw me into the car itself… then someone screamed and he started yelling at her." Amanda responded, leaning against Finn as they headed towards the parking lot._

" _You don't want her to leave, talk it out! Don't throw her against a car, what's that supposed to do, keep her in line when she hasn't done anything wrong?!" Ariel yelled, Seth getting angrier at hearing that._

" _And what the hell would you know, you're just a kid!" Seth shouted… before he saw Ariel's wings appear._

" _Just a kid? We see and we know more than you would think… and we feel what you all feel when you hurt each other!" Ariel responded._

 _Across the parking lot, Finn was keeping Amanda hidden behind a car… and trying to keep his own temper controlled but not having much luck._

" _Stay here." Finn whispered, Amanda wrapping her right hand around his left wrist to stop him._

" _Finn-" Amanda said._

" _He hurt you." Finn responded._

" _I'm alright, just bruised-" Amanda whispered before both heard a loud scream and saw Seth get slammed into a car by a vine that was in the wall._

" _How does that feel, huh?!" Ariel growled, Seth scrambling away once he had the chance…_

 **Present time…**

"Ariel… is she normally like that, angry at people?" Amanda asked after Ramiel explained it.

"Not often… But that day hadn't been very kind to her already, there was a whole acre of rainforest sliced apart in that day on its own and she was still quite new to it… It was a shock to her just how much she could feel." Ramiel answered.

"It would be for anyone…" Amanda said, Ramiel seeing a bit of the bruises on her left side because her _Bulletproof Balor Club_ racerback tank top was bunched up. "After what had happened last summer, I stopped wearing anything with _The Shield_ logo on it… I didn't feel right doing so, wearing them. It took my mind back to that night that Seth smashed a chair into my knee and broke the kneecap and femur." She explained.

"Sometimes I wonder why Ariel's predecessor made you lot so… breakable." Ramiel replied.

"One hit in the wrong spot can break anything… broke a co-worker's nose and orbital socket once during a match with a mistimed kick. She thought I did it on purpose and called me unsafe to work with." Amanda said, fixing her shirt before accessing YouTube.

She showed Ramiel the match from last October, Ramiel seeing Alexa wasn't able to guard her face in time… but that it was accidental and that Amanda had broken character to help Alexa up and check on her. But in the video, Alexa started screaming and shoving Amanda away in rage.

"I hadn't meant to hurt her… without even realising it, I put her on the injured list like Seth had done to me." Amanda said after closing YouTube out.

"Accidental injuries happen… no one's fault." Ramiel responded.

It was in Atlanta for _SmackDown_ after Amanda had taken her medicine that she was ready for tonight… she was clearing her mind as she walked around the arena.

But she barely turned around before receiving a strong punch to the face and left side of her head… she was shoved down to her knees but got back up after gripping onto the masked assailant's arm and bending it back before locking her legs around the assailant's waist and arms around the neck.

The person was down to their right knee for a little over a minute before standing back up and running at the wall, Amanda suppressing a scream as her body hit the wall… but she refused to let go and was slammed three more times into it before she was rendered unconscious and forced to let go, falling to the floor.

"You're a hellcat, I'll give you that." The assailant muttered before leaving the brunette there.

Finn was walking around at the same time, concerned because Amanda hadn't come back for a while… when he reached the hallway, he ran to Amanda and crouched down, his index and middle finger on his right hand resting on her neck and finding a strong pulse.

He grabbed his phone and dialed 911, putting his jacket over Amanda to keep her warm.

' _When I find the son of a bitch who did this…'_ Finn thought angrily, him seeing bruising starting to form on Amanda's left eye… he refused to leave her side when the paramedics put her on the backboard and stretcher as Hunter reached them.

"What happened?! Did you see who did this?!" Hunter asked, his right hand resting on Amanda's head and lightly stroking her hair.

"When I found her, the lunatic was already gone…" Finn responded, Hunter placing a kiss to Amanda's forehead before going to get her things for her.

Her hazel eyes were sluggish to open but Amanda found herself in a bed at what she most likely guessed was a part of the hospital where a neurological specialist could keep an eye on her, Finn was by her side.

"Tá sé ceart go leor ... tá tú amach ar feadh tamaill, áfach." Finn said quietly in his native tongue.

"Son of a bitch clocked me when my back was turned." Amanda muttered.

"Always the foul mouthed one, Mandy… but try to stay still, you've got a concussion and a few bruises." Finn said, pulling the chair up closer and wrapping his hands around Amanda's small right one before lightly kissing the slender fingers.

But the argument was once again in her mind.

" _Lately, you've treated me like we barely know each other… and you might not care but that hurts me, Seth. What did I do wrong, why don't you want anything to do with me anymore? He is my friend but the Demon King and Demon Mistress thing, it's just a storyline, Seth. Just like The Shield splitting apart was for the cameras, it shouldn't affect us backstage."_

" _Well it does! Before we know it, you'll be in the same bed and room, you'll be walking out into the arena hand in hand, leg up and lips together and it will be far from 'just an act'!"_

"Finn?" Amanda said, Finn looking at her… and without her asking, he obliged.

Finn stood up and slipped his shoes off, pulling the blanket up and sitting down on the edge of the bed… he curled up onto his side and took Amanda into his arms, her head resting on his left shoulder and her left arm wrapping around him.

"I'm right here… I'm not going anywhere, love, I promise." Finn whispered, kissing Amanda on the top of her head.

Amanda closed her eyes and let sleep overtake her again, Finn doing the same thing.

He knew why she wanted him to stay… she didn't feel safe in the aftermath of the assault.


End file.
